Archive for 2005

There is a pervasive air of superiority in America, a sense of entitlement that comes from being the only superpower in the world. A good number of people (mostly pundits) assume that Americans are somehow special and deserving of special treatment. I remember listening to the G. Gordon Liddy show a year or so back and hearing the producer say that Americans deserve the rights laid out in the Constitution and that no one else did. Her reasoning was that these rights were reserved to those in America only because they were “American Citizens”. The logic was circular, but a telling clue into the minds of those who believe that Americans are superior to the rest of the worlds population. It’s a disturbing trend that continues today. Apparently, members of the House are mulling changing the “birthright” clause of the Constitution in an effort to reduce illegal immigration.

The problem they are trying to address is simple. People are coming to the U.S. and giving birth to a child. This child, by law, is an U.S. citizen. These children, when they come of age are then turning around and sponsoring their parents for citizenship. Of course, the government could deport the parents before the children come of age, but then they split up the family and put a burden on the government to care for the child. So the answer they propose is to eliminate the birth right of children to be U.S. citizens if they are the child of an illegal immigrant.

So why is this wrong? Effectively, we would be setting up a class system of “Us” vs. “Them”, creating a country club of rights in which those born to certain parents are entitle more rights then those born of a different set of parents. And because of how the immigration system is currently set up, undesirables, and the children of undesirables, will be rejected based solely on their parentage. What is more un-American then that?

I play Powerball. There, I admit it. I’m not ashamed. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t play it a lot, but when it climbs to 340 million, I figure a dollar is a fine thing to waste on a 1 in 140 million chance at retirement. But I don’t have the illusion that I will win. So when I woke up Thursday morning to the radio talking about how someone had won in Oregon, my home state, let’s just say I got a little bit hopeful. My odds of winning went from 1 in 140 million to 1 in how ever many unique combinations were sold. Eliminate the ones that were taken from “Lost” and combinations that were on multiple tickets and suddenly my odds looked still pretty damn bad, but I had a moment of hope. Then I compared my numbers to the drawn and, well, lets just say I matched one. Ah well, back to the real world.

I went to DC at the beginning of August. During the second leg of the trip there, the pilot came on the intercom and announce we had to turn back due to an indicator. It turned out that one of the engines was overheating. I wouldn’t have known that except one of the flight attendants reassured us that the plane could still fly with one engine. I didn’t know that was an option that we might have to take and I didn’t want to know. I was quite happy with knowing there was a warning light was on and that we’d be safely returning to the airport. In that situation, ignorance is bliss.

So imagine the horror of the passengers on JetBlue Flight 292 who had the opportunity to watch the live analysis of their plane as it tried to land with defective landing gear. Imagine the fear that built up as FoxNews offered “Fair and Balanced” analysis of how the plane could catch on fire. It would be a surreal flight and represents the meta-experiance media is providing us. I am reminded of the movie “Amazon Women on the Moon” where one of the characters tunes the TV to a Ebert and Roeper type review of of his life and death. As Danny Bonaduce said “you haven’t lived until you are listening on the radio the high-speed police chase you are currently in”.

See, now this is what happens when I don’t pay attention. Apparently, people have been commenting on some of my posts (Cult of Mac?) and I didn’t even know it. It seems that I have WordPress set up to hold comments for my approval. Couple that with my inheirent laziness and, well, they got ignored. Not intentially, but still. I’ve combed through them and approved those that weren’t spam (though I know about 50 places to get Viagra now) and they should show up. It seems like people are reading this damn thing. Go figure.

I believe in the separation of church and state. I also believe that the Founding Fathers believed in a secular government. What I don’t believe in is fighting battles agaist something as innoculas as the words “under God” in the pledge. While I think it should be dropped, the perception of judicial activism will be fueled by the recent ruling from the Federal District Court. All this will do is get people in an uproar and demand the Congress/Senate take action to ensure the words remain in the pledge.

This is just wrong. Unless an animal is attacking you, you don’t hurt them. To use them as instruments of war, as walking bombs, is just a horrible abuse of an innocent animal. It’s like attacking kids: something you just don’t do.

“It’s an atheist pilgrimage. We walk about the countryside, seeing places that have no religious significance at all, and conclude by visiting the sacreligious hill where it is said a famous atheist did not ascend to heaven. There are even people who claim that they have visited these sites with incurable diseases and that, upon standing on the hill, their ailments were not cured!”